03/12/2014
Really interesting answer from recent HQ interviewee Stephen King about the changing role of the artist manager:
What do you see as some of the main differences between managing an artist now and 20 years ago?
"20 years ago, managers pretty much existed in the development phase, taking advances from major record companies and major publishing companies. The advance that they took for their artist paid the manager’s own overheads for a 12 to 18 month period and that allowed him to work very closely with the artist and develop them until the artist achieved commercial success.
Now it’s rare to get the level of advances that we could have got 20 years ago. So managers now have to invest their own money more than they’ve ever had to. They now have to take a longer term view in terms of when they can expect to start earning money.
Also I think more and more managers are the record company rather than just being a manager, they’re involved in that whole process, and it’s definitely a higher level of risk. But hopefully, they’re in a stronger position to get higher level of return, because they’re doing that development as well."
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